


love's a loaded gun

by gghoulish



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, already small ship tag be any more sad and lacking of content LMAO, carol and tommy are like best friends and she knows/knew that he's gay, i'll probably add stommy tags soon but i don't want to make an, no cheating - or if there is it's brief, rating may go up if i write some smut y'never know, so they're chill - might be in a fake relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:28:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22074028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gghoulish/pseuds/gghoulish
Summary: various drabbles/oneshots for tommy hagan.
Relationships: Tommy Hagan/Billy Hargrove, Tommy Hagan/Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	1. time stands still (these days) ((tommy/billy/steve))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, i'll be real with y'all, i've spent the last two months thinking a lot about tommy, and i'm thrilled to see his actor be on the same page i am when it comes to him. i've developed a lot of headcanons and i love to write for him. i don't know when he'll be in larger projects of mine, but i wanted to put all of my oneshots/drabbles onto here (and i didn't really want to post them all separately, most of them aren't that big or impressive)--- feel free to suggest some tommy content if you want to see anything in particular! be warned that there will be subjects of abuse and homophobia.

[( click here for spotify playlist )](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0KtQB8A6VSHeUwEWWSA0dM?si=7HdER9wFSOaLn1Dyci36PA)

* * *

They’re on better terms, these days. Highschool was in the past, Starcourt an echo of something awful, and now Billy found himself taking drives to Tommy’s house— and Steve wasn’t far behind, because he’d just gotten off work, and _these days_ , that meant they all met at Tommy’s house.

Billy and Steve had been a thing for a while. The jealousy and animosity aimed at that change had faded when Tommy admitted why he had been so hostile; he’d _cared_ about the both of them ( _more than that, he’d **loved** them_), and though it was hard to accept, neither Billy nor Steve could judge him harshly for his attitude, not when they’d made their fair share of mistakes. Tommy had been willing, despite his fragile feelings, to be a friend to them again.

But the closeness they all shared now— it wasn’t what any of them had planned. Billy could walk straight into Tommy’s house— spare house key bouncing up and down in the palm of his hand— and it felt natural. Like he got up every day and this was where he was supposed to be. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Tommy spoke up from his place on the floor of his room, going through a bin of tapes, his _**disgustingly**_ orange carpet greeting Billy like a sweet hello. More than that, he found himself a little taken aback by Tommy’s current outfit. Tommy looked pleased as punch, smiling up at him like he had a reason to.

“Nothin’— when’d you start dressing like that?” 

“What, you a prude? I’m not a girl or some shit, Hargrove,” he rolled his eyes, unfazed by Billy.

“Shut the fuck up,” Billy said it affectionately, sitting next to him, peering over his shoulder at the tapes he had. Tommy was a little weird, always got whatever he could get his hands on, even if it sounded like absolute garbage— had the money to spare, Billy figured, since he’d stopped taking Carol out.

These days, Carol was out of the picture. At least, the _ride-off-into-the-sunset_ picture. Why it had been a surprise, both Billy and Steve didn’t know– it was inevitable, after all. Tommy seemed to be embracing a part of himself that neither of them were very good with. Part of it made a territorial sense bubble up in Billy’s gut, but he didn’t know why.

“You goin’ out like that?” They’d planned to go see a movie, but he wasn’t sure if a crop top that trashy was fucking _legal_. Tommy had developed a reputation for his shorts that hugged his ass relentlessly, but the shirt ( _or lack there-of_ ) really put it over the top, made Billy’s gaze wander down over the expanse of his stomach, gaze catching on his happy trail.

“What, afraid I’ll get all the attention?” And no— Billy had never been afraid of that. Tommy had always been cute, sure— he wouldn’t kiss on a guy if he was fucking ugly— but the thing they’d had was in the past. _Wasn’t it?_

**These days** , Billy wasn’t so sure.

He heard the front door open, shut, and both Billy and Tommy knew it was Steve. They’d memorized the sound of him coming in. In tandem, their heads snapped up and looked to the doorway of the room, identically adoring smiles reaching their lips.

Steve raised an eyebrow at the display and sat down on the opposite side of Tommy, looking over the tapes and picking one out. _Madonna_. Figured. At least it wasn’t some foreign rock that’d made their ears bleed. “We’ll listen to this on the way to the movie,” he said, but his gaze wasn’t on the tape, instead it was stuck on Tommy. From his thighs, to his chest, up to the freckles that graced his face like a night sky full of stars.

“Why're you looking at me like that?” Tommy gave a suspicious look, going from Steve, to Billy. Usually they sat next to each other, not both on either side of him. He felt like he was in a tank filled with sharks.

_And these days_ , they always seemed to get closer to him, as if every visit was something that pulled them in closer. First Billy’s hand was on his arm, and then Steve was leaning into him, looking mischievous.

“Maybe we just think you’re cute, man. That so bad?” Steve knew it was playing with fire to say that kind of shit, he knew how far gone Tommy was— not just on him, but on Billy, too. It felt like a dangerous game to play, and yet, Billy joined in, as if it were only right;

“Yeah,“ his voice was low, a tone that he’d only saved for Steve, as of late, “can’t dress like that and expect us to have good Christian thoughts, Tommy,” Billy got front row seats to the blush that spread like wildfire, especially since he’d leaned in to say that.

“Fuck you guys. Third wheelin’ with you is fucking Hell,” he puffed out a reply, shoving at Billy and frowning, glaring daggers towards Steve when he poked at him. But the thing was, it didn’t feel so much like Tommy was the third wheel, not anymore. However, as Billy and Steve shared a look, they didn’t quite know how to explain that. The words weren’t with them, not yet. Maybe someday soon, they’d know. For now, they just laughed and enjoyed how flustered they’d made Tommy.

_**These days, things weren’t so bad.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was inspired by a roleplay i did a few months ago, so it won't have a follow-up, but i'd still love to write more tharringrove oneshots!


	2. tightrope (tommy/billy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'typical post-s3 au (think the usual harringrove), but it’s tommy who takes care of billy. once billy is out of the hospital, he acts like it’s carol that wants to see him— but it’s really him. and it breaks his heart to see the fire gone from billy’s eyes, makes him want to just reignite it, to see even a spark of what used to be.'

_"I'm gonna beat your old man's ass,"_ he said, one night, after Max had called him and told him to pick Billy up. The bruises that were blossoming over Billy's now-paler skin were obvious, and the blood on his lips was an echo of a time where that color might have been there minus the carnage. He thinks fondly of those days in the Summer, when he caught glimpses of cherry lip-gloss and sun-kissed skin. Billy didn't talk about what had happened on the fourth of July, but Tommy had seen the scars, knew it wasn't from a fucking _fire_. He also knew damn well that Billy didn't deserve to go home to a dad who hated him and treated him like he was a piece of shit, no matter what he did. A part of him ached, knowing that Billy had to endure that kind of life--- and even more, it hurt to know that he'd let them grow distant, and that only Billy's accident had brought them back together.

"Not some girl you can protect," Billy eventually said back, all but falling in on himself as he sat on Tommy's floor, golden curls doing their best to hide his heart-wrenching expression. Tommy would think, for a moment, that maybe he'd let himself run again--- that he'd let Billy go, try to move on again. But he didn't think he could do that, he couldn't look at Billy and abandon him, not when he was living like this, looking so lost. He'd gone through Hell for years, but this was a fresh form of it, something harsher, something that Tommy wasn't sure he'd survive alone.

"I don't fucking care about that, Hargrove. I care about **_you_** ," and he'd already let go once, had seen the shit that Billy's dad had done and he hated himself for ever having walked away, for ever having done something that selfish. When he remembers, **_and he remembers it more often than not_** , the night last Autumn, when Billy Hargrove had stumbled to his house, off his ass, beat to shit, and tears in his eyes as he said, ' _I'm just a fuckin' faggot_ '--- he feels sick to his stomach. That night, Billy had looked at him, like he wanted to be told he _was_ just a faggot, that he was some filthy piece of shit-- but all Tommy had done was take him into his arms, bring him inside, and patched him up, like he was just a broken doll glued together by the child who loved it. Right now, Tommy would do that, and so much more.

"I don't care about what people think, Billy. You're staying with me," and it wasn't going to be made into an argument, because a sob ripped itself, harsh and raw from Billy's chest--- it was enough to tell Tommy that he wanted to stay. The fire may be gone from Billy, but it was alive and well within himself--- and he'd let that fire warm Billy, as he wrapped his arms around him, unwilling to ever let him go again. He was too scared to say he _loved_ him, even though he **did** , but he hoped someday he'd be able to tell Billy that, and that Billy might accept it---

because it didn't matter if Billy loved him back, Tommy only wished for him to be safe, and for him to be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god do i love billy/tommy.... *blows a kiss into the void for them*


End file.
